Meet Genshu Price

 

We recently connected with Genshu Price and have shared our conversation below.

Genshu, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?

The generosity that became Bottles4College is originated from my upbringing here in Hawaii. On the islands, we are taught the idea of Aloha. Aloha is not only a word that means hello, love, and goodbye, but is also a lifestyle. One that teaches you to give to others and to that around you without the expectation of anything in return as you are helping better the community and environment. This has helped mold my generosity to want to give back to my home and the planet. From that, Bottles4College was born as a way to create actionable solutions to the social, environmental, and educational problems that we all face around the world, starting with my home, Hawaii.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Bottles4College is an award winning 501(c)(3) that collects recyclable cans and bottles to protect the environment and to create college scholarships for students in Hawaii. We have recycled over 1.7 MILLION cans and bottles, diverted over 140,000 lbs of trash from landfill, and have granted over $50,000 in college scholarships and disaster relief funding to those affected by the Maui wildfires ($43,500 in scholarships, $10,000 in disaster relief). We work with over 30 businesses and organizations including United Airlines, Kualoa Ranch, Outrigger Hotels, and more to bring sustainability to Hawaii, our events, and communities. Bottles4College has also granted thousands of volunteer hours to students, helping them fulfill graduation requirements, be a part of world class events, and spearhead Bottles4College efforts in their schools and community spaces.

Bottles4College goes by the 4 Pillars of Environment, Education, Community, and Lifestyle to create action in our community to problems and to instill inspiration and passion to our current and next generations.

While we spread word of our efforts and make impacts in many ways, one of the biggest visual showcases of what we do is through our large-scale recycling drives. In a single day, Bottles4College, with the help of our community members and volunteers, recycles tens of thousands of cans and bottles. As Bottles4College is a collective effort, our recycling drives are the result of hundreds of community members and volunteers joining us to help us bring sustainability to our home. While these drives are highlights of the scale of our work, Bottles4College’s efforts are spearheaded on a daily basis and is a result of nonstop hard work and grit to turn trash into treasure.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Looking back, the three most impactful lessons I learned in my journey was:

-Take action, only you have control to begin your journey to do something…which means nothing is holding you back!
Early on, I learned that the day I get to start making a difference isn’t decided by anyone or anything but myself. Bottles4College is my way of showing those around me that they can do the same. Bottles4College is a platform that they can join to help them do just that so they can learn how to impact their community positively in the ways that they feel passionately for, regardless of anything else that makes them feel hesitant to make that jump to take action.

-The value of a yes
Even with Bottles4College focused on things so universal like the environment and education, it’s not always a yes from people. When this organization was closer to that of a vision still rather than a full fledged organization, I was working hard to help us begin collaboration with entities in our community to help further the impacts we both could make for our environment. Most of the feedback was amazing and we still work with those businesses today, to create sustainability here in Hawaii. And for the few who said no? It taught me to especially treasure those who say yes and see the vision you have, because that is how you grow a community, that is how you grow an impact, that is how you grow an effort that can move mountains. (Literally, we have moved millions of cans and bottles into the recycling system, that’s a pretty big pile)

-Having a CAN do attitude
Creating and running Bottles4College is hard work. From the physically hard work like sorting recycling and lifting giant supersacks of cans and bottles to publicly speaking to our community and discussing with Board of Directors, it’s quite a lot. But with a mindset that says that anything is possible, it makes that hard work achievable with the impact that is left so much bigger. And Bottles4College works to help more people have a can do attitude everyday, whether it’s when they volunteer with us, donate to us, or receive a Bottles4College scholarship; Bottles4College is built on being able to achieve the seemingly impossible and make it certainly reality.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

Even though Bottles4College has made a huge impact and has some of the most in depth metrics on sustainability and recycling in Hawaii, we are currently facing the challenge of how to grow from being a simply “grassroots” organization to a prominent pillar in our community. This journey of growth is a challenge due to resources. Beyond just scholarships, Bottles4College also wants to create local jobs and opportunities so we can give back beyond educational support and also be able to reach further in our community. The more boots on ground we have ready, the more we will be have to give back. In order to grow our efforts, we call to the community to continue following us on our journey, donating and supporting in any way possible. We are also looking for grants to help us grow our efforts and impact. Our goal is to have all of our environmental efforts to be focused on funding our scholarships, something we have been able to achieve and maintain over the years of our giving. But we also want to grow that giving, which means we need to grow as an organization to be able to do so.

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Bottles4College team

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